SOME BOOKS 01? THE WEEK.
( Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.)
New anthologies of poetry, to be valuable after so many years of anthologizing, should represent rather the personal taste and the private discoveries of the anthologist than the established verdict of our contemporary critics. On the other hand, the anthologist with strongly individual opinions will often be met with execration for his failure to include the more rapular poems and may even be charged with ignor- ance or carelessness. In his seventeenth and eighteenth century anthologies Mr. Ingpen has steered a middle course ; i he has included both poems which " cannot be left out of any anthology " and lesser-known poems the presence of which is proof of his scholarship and sensitiveness. • But when he comes to the nineteenth century he seems to be overawed by authority ; this volume is composed entirely of poems which " cannot be left out "—" Annabel Lee," " I Remember, I Remember," " Dark Rosaleen," and a host of other poems that are neither representative of their authors nor in them- selves really presentable. In each volume there are possibly too many authors included : the books have thus an air of instruction rather than companionship. But the anthologist's way is hard, and on the whole Mr. Ingpen's anthologies are an addition to our stock of appreciation and knowledge. The three volumes are beautifully produced and incredibly cheap.
Previous page
